Woman’s interesting life story an inspiring one

Her story is far too long and intricate to cover in a newspaper feature article, but Dona Bouford-Hiar's journey down life's path has taken many twists and turns, and it is an inspiring one that should be shared. Born in Tower, her mother was a nurse. When Dona came into this world, the doctor was nowhere to be found, she said, and her mother managed the delivery all by herself. Bouford-Hiar, who is 76, graduated from Alanson High School and went to Adelphine Academy. She said at the time, Alanson's school wasn't accredited, so she couldn't get into college. She has lived in Illinois, Onaway, Rogers City, Alanson and Arizona; to name a few spots. She is related to the families of Dubois, Parrotts and Crawfords; names common to Indian River, Onaway, Afton and Tower. She's an artist, a musician, a nurse and a passionate lover of wolf dogs and wolves. Although she has been battling Parkinson’s disease for 25 years, she says she won’t let it get her down, using artwork and music to help her remain positive. Bouford-Hiar said her Parkinson’s has progressively gotten worse, and she has developed pain in her legs, which go numb from time-to-time. She also does not have rotator cuffs in both arms and has osteoarthritis, which is starting to go into both of her hips. “The pain is getting bad. I’m wearing out. I don’t give up,” Bouford-Hiar said. “People think that just because you have Parkinson’s, you are going to die. I have seen a lot of my good friends die. But I am tough.” Bouford-Hiar, who has been doing artwork for as long as she can remember, said she never had any art lessons. “I used to sit and watch my grandmother paint. That’s where I picked it up,” she said. “I was the only grandchild she ever had that could draw.” Since her first entry into an art competition when she was 13, several of her creations have created have won blue ribbons in different state fairs. She even had a piece of artwork hanging in the White House at one time. She said President Gerald R. Ford came through Cheboygan and took a liking to a painting she had done, when he stopped at an art show. “It was a picture of a cabin, with a creek and a winter scene. It was in the White House, and I didn’t charge him for it,” she said. “He was on his way to Mackinac Island, during his campaign.” She enjoys painting, drawing, colored pencil drawings, cross stitching and making artwork from porcupine quills, as well as knitting and crocheting. She is currently working on a colored pencil drawing to enter in the upcoming Emmet-Charlevoix County fair in August. Bouford-Hiar also crocheted the Lord’s Prayer, as well as Psalm 23, which she donated to the Seventh Day Adventist Church in Carp Lake where she played the organ for 18 years. Each piece is 4-by-8 feet and took around three months to finish. She said she also has a standing contract with Mackinac State Park for her artwork. “They take everything I make,” Bouford-Hiar said. “So, I’m a busy girl.” Bouford-Hiar said she was in the nursing field for 32 years, completing her childhood dream of wanting to become a nurse. She started out at the old Lockwood Hospital in Petoskey, and from there she went to hospital in Cheboygan, Traverse City and in several hospitals in Ohio as well as different nursing homes. “And I worked for eight years on the Indian reservation in Arizona, as a “medicine nurse,” she said. “I did medications and dressings. They sure have a different way of medicine and medication out there. They believe in maggots.” Bouford-Hiar said on several different occasions, she would treat a patient, get the wound cleaned, dressed and properly bandaged, then go back to check on them and find maggots. “They didn’t tell me about this lady, I went out to change her dressing and I couldn’t figure out what smelled so bad. So, I took off the dressing and it was filthy,” she said. “So, when I took it off, it was full of black maggots. I about died.” Bouford-Hiar said she took off all the maggots, cleaned the wound and give the woman a nice, clean bandage back on the wound. Two days later, when she went back to change the dressing, she found maggots and the dressing was filthy again. “The maggots eat the dead skin,” she said. “She had an ulcer in the side of her leg, the size of a baseball. Within six months, it was completely healed. I couldn’t believe it.” During her time on the reservation, Bouford-Hiar said she never knew whether she was going to be sewing up a cow, a cat or a person, because of the dangerous barbed wire the animals always ended up getting tangled in. “I did a lot of sewing,” she said. “I couldn’t see the animals suffer.” Bouford-Hiar is also very passionate about wolves, incorporating them into a lot of her artwork. This passion stems from having raised wolf dogs throughout her life. When asked how she got into raising wolves, she said was given her first wolf pup by the chief of the Hopi tribe in northern Arizona as a thank you gift for taking care of his mother. “She (the wolf pup) was 3-weeks-old, and I had her for 18 years,” she said. “And after her, I vowed I would never have another wolf.” Bouford-Hiar said while she had “Star,” her first wolf dog, it had eight litters of eight puppies each. “I never had a bad one with any of them,” she said. “And Star would pick out who she wanted to have her pups. She would be in the house, and if they would come in the drive, and as soon as they came in the drive, if she started barking, they didn’t get a pup. If she didn’t bark, and they came in, they were the ones that got the pup. But I never had a bad one, not in the 64 pups.” Bouford-Hiar said after Star passed away, another wolf dog became available to her, from Tennessee, through a Parkinson’s support organization. The wolf was a trained Parkinson’s dog, which would sit and bark to draw attention, should its owner stumble, or start having an attack. “I had her for 13 years,” Hiar Bouford-Hiar said. “Her name was Cody. She wouldn’t let anyone get near me. My wolves lived in the house, just like we do. They slept with us every night.” Bouford-Hiar said it wasn’t hard to raise a wolf dog. She said Star would travel in the car everywhere Bouford-Hiar, would go on the reservation in Arizona. One stark difference between a regular dog and a wolf dog, were the howling sessions. She, Star and the eight puppies would sit around and howl for at least an hour at a time. She said it is one of her fondest memories of her wolf dogs. “They would look forward to it every morning,” Hiar said. “I’d howl at them and they would howl back. For about an hour, we’d go on. Star would just start in. I would just sit in my chair and the nine of us would howl.” Hiar said she had several wild wolves that would come into her back yard almost every day. She said she would feed them a cow once a year and the same wolves would come back each year. “They knew there was nothing to be afraid of. My wolves would howl at them and they would howl back,” she said. She doesn’t understand how anyone would want to hunt, or kill a wolf. “Wolf puppies are not bad,” she said. “I love my wolves. I wish I had another one.” Bouford-Hiar also plays the organ, which she says helps her to control the shaking of the Parkinson’s. There have been several different concerts put on at Bay Bluffs in Harbor Springs, where Bouford-Hiar currently lives, where she has played the organ and sang. Music has been a big part of her life, from the time she was young. She learned to play the spoons from country music legend Buck Owens. She started playing the organ when she was 5-years-old. Her mother made her take lessons, for which at the time, she hated her. “But now, I praise her for it,” Bouford-Hiar said. It was through her nursing that Hiar met her husband of 25 years, Paul. She took care of his mother at a private nursing home. When she married into Paul's family, she enjoyed 14 grandkids and 22 great grandkids. Bouford-Hiar never had any kids Editor's note: It has been a pleasure getting to know Dona Bouford-Hiar in the last several weeks. We wish we could share more of her life story, but are grateful for the opportunity to give a glimpse into her very accomplished life.